Broadcasting Telecasting (Apr-Jun 1957)

THE BATTLE for the American food dollar becomes fiercer even, year. Kroger Co. has its 1.476 stores in the heart of the nation where its energetic executives are competing against A&P. Safeway and other chains. Matching their sales records shows that Kroger is gaining on its two main rivals. With the nation's food bill now running S70 billion a year. Kroger is sensitive to the fact that women handle most of this money and possibly two-thirds of all personal expenditures (S266 billion in 1956). Kroger uses consumer advertising media in substantial amounts. Since Mrs. America spends a lot of time at home— although 30^ of married women do some sort of outside work to raise their living standards — Kroger catches the chief food buyer during davtime hours with saturation radio spots that start Wednesday and generally wind up Friday. In the evening hours Kroger has svndicated tv films that catch both Mr. & Mrs. America at home. Newspapers, of course, are widely used by Kroger. Their price-listing appeal is appreciated but the chain has found the answer to food-store promotion — radio, tv, newspapers. * Total retail sales. U. S. and Canada. Wholesale sales ranged from S34 million in 1950 to S57.2 million in 1956. ** For fiscal year ended Feb. 28. THE BIG THREE IN FOOD SALES 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 Billions of Dollars .5 A&P" SAFEWAY' KROGER 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5 5.0 HOW KROGER'S AD BUDGET HAS CHANGED Percent of Advertising Expenditures 90 NEWSPAPER 70 35 RADIO 20 10 TELEVISION KROGER's advertising budget has had its ups and downs through the years, but the downs have been confined to the sums allotted to particular media. The media pattern since television's advent has been typical of the sensitive feel Kroger has for the public pulse. The chart demonstrates how newspapers had roughly three-fourths of the mass-media budget at the turn of the decade, with radio getting roughly 17% and tv less than 6%. Radio was cut back in 1951 as Kroger followed the advertising trend by signing up for a costly production, the Alan Young series. This milliondollar venture didn't work out as well as hoped, so Kroger started all over again in the visual medium. Starting in 1952, the chain began buying local shows. It emphasized syndicated films and locally-produced commercials which were augmented by specially filmed commercials. Now Kroger 'is buying tv, and lots of it. While television was at a low ebb in the 1952-54 period, radio began to take a larger share of the advertising budget and newspapers at one point had seven-eighths of the total. This has since settled down to a little over three-fourths as radio and tv get 22 of the total. 1956 Broadcasting • Telecasting May 6, 1957 • Page 121